“Nope. I’ll be on my best behavior. Just promise you’ll call me if you need help.”
Wow. Zach was really growing. Maybe she’d get to go on an actual date. Maybe she’d even like the guy.
“That’s very nice of you, and I promise to call if I need help,” Lauren said.
“Do I get brownie points for not threatening your date?” he asked.
She chuckled and handed him another bag. “I think that’s fair. I like to reward good behavior.”
“Do I get points for not killing the last one?”
Lauren slapped her hand flat on the counter. “Wes was a good guy! You scared him half to death.”
“If he’s too scared to fight for you, he doesn’t deserve you.”
Lauren grunted. “This isn’t a duel.”
“I’d duel for you.”
The image of Zach pacing away from one of her potential suitors conjured a ridiculous laugh. “You’d take a bullet for me?”
“That’s not what I said. I said I’d duel. It’s implied that I would win.”
“You’re out of your mind,” she said through another laugh. “So you wouldn’t take a bullet for me?”
He narrowed his eyes. “That depends. Are you the reason we’re being shot at?”
Her lungs constricted as she laughed harder. “You think that if someone’s shooting at us, that it would bemyfault?”
“Hundred percent. I steer clear of life-threatening situations. You should try it sometime.”
She shoved his big shoulder, but he barely moved.
Zach held up his hands. “Easy. That is harassment. I might have to report you to HR.”
Pointing at her chest, she gasped, “I am HR!”
“Things like that could lead to an on-the-job injury. I hope you have workers’ comp insurance. This is an unsafe work environment.”
Zach rattled on while she bent over and tears streamed down her face. One of her dreams had decidedly come true. Zach was her friend, and the Lord was using them to start healing each other’s wounds.
27
Zach
Zach positioned a board on top of the previous one, and Travis zipped screws into it, fixing the wood to the posts behind it.
When the sun set early, it meant work often moved indoors on the ranch. Matt Benson said the stable stalls should have been replaced years ago, but today was their lucky day.
A bead of sweat raced down Zach’s temple, oblivious to the frigid temperatures. It continued to slide as he held up another board for Travis to secure. The whirring of another drill came from the other side of the stables as Gage and Matt mirrored Zach and Travis’s work on the other side.
Zach and Travis had just secured the top board on a stall when Bella walked into the breezeway carrying Ariana. The kid was bundled in what looked like a ball of fluff, covered from head to toe and nuzzled againsther mother’s chest.
“Dinner is ready,” Bella sang. “Zach, are you staying to eat?”
Travis’s wife invited Zach to stay for dinner every night, and he always declined. Tonight, thoughts of Lauren and her date with some other guy made him hesitate.
“What’s wrong, bud? Cat got your tongue?” Travis asked as he clicked a lid onto a box of screws.
